I’ve been in the tech industry at various levels and in various sectors over the last 10 years, locally, regionally and internationally. Been following my passion for all things dotcom and telecom and have had some successes and a couple of flops.
Still mostly based here in Kingston, Jamaica I’ve always felt that Jamaica was always 5 years behind the rest of the world in terms of Internet access, online entrepreneurship and a larger Internet culture that yes includes the gamers and bloggers. I believe too that our lagging behind is unnecessary as we have great bright, driven skilled individuals here and I’ve been meeting even more of them lately.
They tend to be university graduates or young professionals already in jobs, bored out of their minds looking for a challenge. When I talk to them, online or face-to-face, the single consistent question I get asked is this…How do you make money online?Now outside of the fact that there are numerous ways to do that. I typically smile and ask them a bunch of questions, such as - what are you genuinely interested in, what trends have you noticed, have you done any research to see if there are any market gaps, are you targeting a local, regional or global audience and are you prepared to commit for the long haul. After about the third question, their faces tend to lose the wide-eyed enthusiasm - I’ve made it too businessy, all too serious for them.
Hey I’m all for experimentation, but if you want to get somewhere, nothing beats research and setting some goals. But I’ve been where they are and a lot of my colleagues who’s made their share of mistakes and who now wallow in loads of hindsight insight know what I am talking about.That said, these younger people typically in their early to late twenties are living in a time where it’s easier now to launch a website with out the help of a programmer; to start a blog; to make, edit and upload a video; to start an online community or email list.
That’s just half the battle however, if you want to make money online, it’s still going to be w-o-r-k.One of the bloggers I read regularly is a six-figure income blogger, you may have heard of him-johnchow.com, a Chinese dude living in Canada. He was voted as one of the Top50 most influential bloggers online. He has written a couple of excellent posts, the first is The Biggest Reasons People Fail At Making Money Online and the other is Why you Fail to Make Money Online.You see Jamaica for the last 10 years and maybe longer has always been on the edge, on the brink, on the verge of getting it and really embracing all things dotcom and telecom and using it to move the economy forward especially when it comes to our tourism, export trade, reggae music and culture and our intellectual property assets.
The fastest man on earth is Jamaican, yet we’ve been so slow and shortsighted in going online in a big way and using it to make serious money.I’m hoping these posts can inspire you and here are a couple of others sites to get you going as well. Check out Johnchow.com, Justmakemoneyonline.com, Shoemoney.com and Cashingcoconuts.com. If you’re already using the Net to Make Money, tell me about it.
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Hello Ingrid,
I have been trying to make money online, for the last 3 years. But some of that involved not acutally doing anything and mostly just trying to read any and everything I could get my hands on.
I have had minor successes in the past, I built a Gaming blog from the ground up, http://www.internetgamers.org, I was making $50 a month for around 9months straight. Which was alright, I was just glad I was making a profit etc.
I sold that last year, then I got into Affiliate Marketing, so I had a bit more success but I stopped because it’s not as rewarding imo.
As you are pretty behind the scenes, and I didn’t like that. I want to launch something and to be known. That was a mistake, as I abandon Aff. Marketing which was making me good money to try other stuff.
I am now back in Aff. Marketing, and learning Ruby on Rails, as I have hopes of launching many more projects in the near future.
Keep more the Good Work, as I have been humbled coming here and seeing all this local talent which I had NO idea existed
March 17th, 2008 at 2:03 pm
Hello Ingrid Riley,
I want to say that you are doing a wonderful job in bringing awareness to in particular Caribbean online entreprenuer, like myself, of the potential of making money online. I am a reader of your articles and admirer of your aggressiveness and business mindedness. The Caribbean and in particular Jamaica is on the verge of being a Technological powerhouse, and this is great opportunity for Caribbean online entreprenuer. I am happy to be apart of this revolution with my website/company http://www.hypedates.com, (online dating/social networking industry). I support your event Kingston Beta, not only that i am an Jamaican but because i think it is a wonderful idea to have a forum where Top online entreprenuers can meet. You are truely an inspiration to me.
Keep Up the GOOD work!!
Easton Olliviere,
Founder, CEO
http://www.hypedates.com
March 20th, 2008 at 10:00 pm
Thanks for the compliments Easton! And I’m glad there are more and more tech entrepreneurs like us who are online doing there thing…we’re a sweet spot now. I’m looking forward to more exciting times.
March 20th, 2008 at 11:40 pm
Dear Ingrid
I must tell you that to me Silicon Caribe is like that newspaper that I MUST pick up in the morning. It is the site I turn to once I have updated my blogs and my social networking sites. I appreciate your insight in the topics you cover and consider them well researched - a bonus for me - since I have an attention span of about 5 minutes :). Your site enables me to actually get most of the information I need by just following the links you provide without the boring task of plowing through the WWW everyday. Thanks and keep up the good work. G.
August 8th, 2008 at 5:11 pm
Thanks a million Gina, I really appreciate it! With so many choices out there I am happy that alot of people continue to read SiliconCaribe regularly.
In fact we were just nominated on this blog aggregator Regator.com as one of the web’s best blogs. So we’re focused on maintaining that.
August 8th, 2008 at 5:28 pm
Hi Ingrid:
Just came upon this site. Refreshing is the first word that comes to mind! Great job!
I haven’t fully read this posting, but you have me smiling an all too familiar knowing smile when you said … ‘. After about the third question, their faces tend to lose the wide-eyed enthusiasm’.
I am going to spend the next week or so reading as much of your postings as I can. So, expect to see some comments from me popping up from time to time.
Again… great job!
Brian Lewis
http://www.CaribbeanJobNet.com
September 15th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
Brian, thanks a million for your compliments and taking the time to read and post. I really appreciate it. LOoking forward to seeing more posts from you.
September 15th, 2008 at 10:20 pm